S. Bleichröder was a German family-controlled

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

based in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, founded in 1803 by

Samuel Bleichröder Samuel Bleichröder (15 July 1779, Wriezen – 30 December 1855) was a German Jewish banker and financier. Located in Berlin, Bleichröder dealt with the Prussian court. He was also involved with the Rothschilds of Frankfurt. In 1803, he establish ...

. As an agent of the German Rothschild Bank, it was developed by Samuel's son

Gerson von Bleichröder Gerson von Bleichröder (22 December 1822 – 18 February 1893) was a Jewish German banker. He was also a close confidant of Otto von Bismarck, serving as his financial agent. He became the first non-converted Jew in Prussia to be granted a her ...

, who became known as " Bismarck's banker". The firm declined in importance in the early 20th century and was eventually acquired in 1931 by

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

-based Arnhold Brothers to form Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder.

History

Samuel Bleichröder (1779–1855), who came from a Jewish family originally based in

Bleicherode Bleicherode () is a town in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Wipper, 17 km southwest of Nordhausen. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Obergebra was incorporated by Bleicherode. The f ...

, founded an exchange business on Rosenthaler Strasse in the center of Berlin. The firm rose to significance in 1828, when it became the Berlin agent of Frankfurt-based M. A. Rothschild & Söhne. Bleichröder subsequently became a significant financier to the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, and in 1845 was also involved in financing the

Cologne-Minden Railway Company The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...

. From 1855 onwards, Samuel's son Gerson Bleichröder (1822-1893) continued the business, while his brother left around 1860 and founded his own banking firm. Gerson Bleichröder made S. Bleichröder prominent in the transfer of credits or placing of loans on behalf of the Prussian state and, from 1871 on, of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

. He also managed the private banking transactions of

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

. Together with other banks, including Mendelssohn & Co., Bleichröder managed the processing of French reparation payments following the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

and financed the build-up of the government-owned

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the state of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

. Until the 1880s, the bank was also, alongside

Maurice de Hirsch Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (; ; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch, was a German Jewish financier and philanthropist who set up charitable foundations to promote Jewish education and improve the ...

, the most important German investor in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. In 1889, it was among the three largest investors in the foundation of the

Deutsch-Asiatische Bank The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB; ) was a foreign bank in Asia, founded in 1889 in Shanghai. Even though its owners were private-sector banks and its principal activity was trade financing, its role has been described as "quasi-governmental" in ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, together with

Disconto-Gesellschaft The Disconto-Gesellschaft (, full name Direktion der Disconto-Gesellschaft) was a significant German bank, founded in Berlin in 1851. It was one of the largest German banking organizations until its 1929 merger into Deutsche Bank. History The ...

and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

. After Gerson's death in 1893, his brother-in-law

Julius Leopold Schwabach Julius Leopold Schwabach (31 May 1831 – 23 February 1898) was a German banker of Jewish descent and British consul-general in Berlin. At the age of sixteen he entered the banking-house of Samuel Bleichröder—his mother's brother-in-law—, an ...

(1831-1898), a partner since 1870, became the bank's senior partner. Gerson's three sons had also become partners, namely Hans von Bleichröder (since around 1881), (since around 1887) and James von Bleichröder (since 1893). In 1896, Julius Leopold Schwabach's son Paul joined the bank. After the First World War, the importance of the Bleichröder Bank declined significantly. In 1918-1921, Bleichröder established cross-shareholdings with the Aufhäuser Bank in Munich. It incurred losses in the

European banking crisis of 1931 The European banking crisis of 1931 was a major episode of financial instability that peaked with the collapse of several major banks in Austria and Germany, including Creditanstalt on , Landesbank der Rheinprovinz on , and Danat-Bank on . It ...

, precipitating the merger with Arnhold Brothers that same year.

References

{{Reflist Defunct banks of Germany Banks established in 1803 1803 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire

History

See also

References